"This paper is written for the purpose of showing the in-service growth of a faculty through a planned program in the Blountstown High School during the period 1946-1949. A brief overview regarding location, economic status and recent developments will orient the reader"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1949." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education under Plan II." / Advisor: R. L. Goulding, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-22).

Includes bibliography. / This dissertation tests the core assumptions of a particular model for INSET (teacher in-service education and training). The study uses as an illustrative case study an INSET programme for junior primary teachers which self-consciously aligns itself with the assumptions underpinning the transformative action reflection model. The assumption of this model is that it is the impact of Courses on teachers' understanding and classroom behaviour of the model both in terms of technical practice and in terms of teachers' ability to employ appropriate practices which will bring about improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. The enquiry entailed operationalising measures through which the core assumptions of the model could be tested. In particular the research entailed measuring whether an INSET course based on this model impacts on 1. a) teachers' understanding of a model for teaching; b) teachers' practice of the model in the classroom; and 2. assessing whether the impact can be judged as improvement in teaching quality. Instruments to measure the impact of the course on teachers' understanding and practice of new pedagogies have been constructed on the basis of explicit criteria drawn from the objectives of two Courses from the particular INSET programme used for the study. Qualitative and quantitative data are used to measure the impact of the two Courses on teachers' understanding and practice of the model. Assessing whether the impact can be said to be improvement in the quality of teaching involved using two independent experts in the field of junior primary teacher training. The craft experts used specially constructed schedules to observe videos of the lessons of a mixed sample of teachers who had attended the INSET course and judge the appropriateness of teachers' practices within specific contexts. Data from the study reveals reasonable evidence to support the assumption that, in terms of its objectives, the claims of the INSET model appear to be valid. The appropriateness of the classroom behaviour of those teachers who according to the study have demonstrated evidence of adequate understanding and practice or mastery of the model was singled out by the craft experts. However, data from the study also reveals that overall only a small band of teachers demonstrate adequate understanding and practice of the model and that, in spite of a quality intervention based on the INSET model, the focus of the teaching of most teachers in the sample selected is on teaching content and vocabulary rather than on teaching concepts, skills and strategies.

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University of Zululand, 2019. / Writing is dominant in schools and continues to be important for effective communication. Therefore, learners need to be up- skilled in writing skills as their everyday activities. This study was conducted to investigate the in-service training needs of educators in teaching writing skills in primary schools at eSwatini. The study responded to the questions: (a) To what extent are educators teaching languages, trained in teaching writing skills to primary school learners? (b) What in-service training needs do educators have in teaching writing skills of primary school learners? (c) What competencies do educators possess for teaching writing skills? The mixed method design was adopted for this study which triangulated focus group semi structured interview, documentary analysis and lesson observation. Purposive sampling was used to sample N=56 educators in eight primary schools and N= 6 trainers from three teacher training colleges. The mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using the statistics, frequencies and percentages as well as cross tabulation. Qualitative data from focus group interviews were analysed by identifying patterns and themes. The study revealed the lack of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in the teaching of writing skills. The findings imply that there no methods of teaching employ in teaching writing skills. In addition, the study findings imply that among other things, there was lack of parental involvement and lack of support from school administrators and government. Recommendations made from this study were that: in-service training department should strengthen workshops with regard to writing skills, there should be preparation of lessons, setting of test, scheme of work and marking of learners’ work. Furthermore, the training colleges should have comprehensive writing skills programmes for all pre-service educators, and not only those who major in languages.

No description available.

This study has been made for three purposes: 1) to find out what difficulties experienced and inexperienced teachers recognize in their teaching; 2)to find out what factors have influenced these difficulties; and 3)to find out, if possible, which difficulties could be eliminated with further pre-service training.

During the 1984-85 school year, a metropolitan school system investigated the research on effective schools to determine which program, once put into place, would serve the system in the remediation of low academic achievement. The program chosen for implementation was the Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (TESA) Program. This study examined the relationships between the frequency of use of TESA-prescribed behaviors in the classroom and (a) time lapse since TESA training, (b) who taught the TESA classes, (c) training type, (d) training quality, and (e) principal support. A teacher survey was developed to collect data on the five predictor variables. One hundred percent of the teachers responded. The TESA observation technique was employed to measure the criterion variable--the frequency of use of the TESA-prescribed behaviors in the classroom. Data were collected during the months of May and June in the 1988-89 school year. Correlations, t-tests, and stepwise regression analysis were employed to analyze the data. Who taught the TESA classes, time lapse since taking TESA training, and training type were found not to significantly predict the frequency of use of TESA behaviors in the classroom. However, statistically significant relationships were found between specific TESA behaviors and certain factors within the multi-item predictor variables of training quality and principal support. / Ed. D.

This descriptive study investigated those factors associated with mandatory staff development training that teachers reported as being conducive to the implementation of the content presented. To obtain the necessary data for this study, 24 elementary teachers from Portsmouth, Virginia Public Schools were interviewed. The interview guide sought answers to questions relating to 1) mandatory staff development participation, 2) school based support of staff development training, 3) relevancy of content presented, 4) factors that motivate teachers in wanting to attend staff development training programs, and 5) demographic information. The major findings were that there is no clear distinction between responses of those teachers who implemented and those that did not implement the mandatory staff development training. The majority of the responses toward mandatory staff development training were positive, even though the impact of the content presented was not as great on some teachers as it was on others. Most of the teachers saw staff development training as being very important and did tend to use some or most of the content presented. School based support by the principal was revealed as being helpful when teachers sought their assistance. Teachers' colleagues and central administration were reported as being positive and enthusiastic, thus enhancing the implementation of the content presented. Also, motivational status of the teachers was a primary factor in affecting the implementation of staff development training. Lastly, the demographic variable, currently enrolled in graduate work, was found to be the predictor variable in whether or not a teacher would tend to be an implementor of staff development training. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a short-term math/science inservice based upon the participants' perceived changes in attitude and behavior relevant to the projects' goals and objectives. One hundred and three elementary school teachers from twelve schools in an urban school district participated in the inservice. The treatments were administered during two eight hour days, one month apart. The project was designed to improve the participants' attitude and behavior relevant to ten goals that centered around increasing awareness and use of science process and math problem solving approaches to teaching. The evaluation instrument was a pre- and post-treatment survey. Seventy questions were created and apportioned to test twenty hypotheses. Two hypotheses were tested to determine the achievement of each goal. One hypothesis tested the teachers' perceived change in attitude and the other tested the teachers' perceived change in teaching behavior relevant to a specific goal. Goal achievement was determined by comparing changes (significant at the.05 level) in attitude and behavior. All ten attitude hypotheses indicated a significant positive change occurred in attitude. None of the behavior hypotheses showed a significant positive change. It was determined that the inservice was totally effective in changing the teachers' attitude, relevant to the goals, but it failed to make a positive impact upon the teachers' perceptions of their actual practice in the classroom. It was speculated that the failure to affect behavior change was a result of one or a combination of the following four factors: insufficient time lapse to affect behavior, more accurate reporting on the post test, retrenchment resulting from feelings of inadequacy, and fear of venturing out alone primarily due to the lack of organizational development. Suggestions for improving the inservice were based upon proposed remedies for the above four factors.

This dissertation evaluated the provision of two different one-to-one educational interventions, randomly assigned, to two separate groups of medical practitioners at a health maintenance organization (HMO), Cigna Healthplan of Tucson, Arizona. A control group received no intervention. Each group consisted of seven physicians and one nurse practitioner. The intervention was aimed at improving the prescribing of the anti-ulcer drugs, cimetidine, ranitidine, and sucralfate. The theoretical basis for the study involved the cognitive principle of vividness, which implies that more vivid information has greater effect on decisions. For this research, the vivid intervention included case scenarios, while the non-vivid intervention included statistical information of the results of a drug use review. Prescribing data, consisting of percentages and cost of inappropriate prescriptions, were collected for one month prior to and for two months after the intervention. Analysis of covariance was employed with the pre-intervention measures of prescribing as the covariate in each test and post-intervention measures as the dependent variables. No differences were found between the two interventions, but the control group was significantly different from the intervention groups. For the first post-intervention month, it was found that the interventions resulted in significantly lower percentages of prescriptions written inappropriately for indication, dose, or duration (P = 0.001). These percentages decreased by 36% for the intervention groups, while increasing by 14% for the control group. Costs of inappropriate prescribing per study prescription and per patient encounter were also significantly lower for the intervention groups than for the control group (P = 0.001 and P = 0.019, respectively). In the second post-intervention month, inappropriate prescribing increased slightly in the intervention groups and were no longer significantly different from the control group. The research demonstrated the effectiveness of a one-to-one educational intervention in improving drug prescribing at an HMO. The lack of differences between the two interventions may have been due to the overall effectiveness of the one-to-one educational discussion, the interpretation of the statistical information as prescribing feedback by the practitioners, or the inadequate presentation of vividness in the case scenarios.

<p>The Namibian education system was affected by a number of changes and challenges. These changes and challenges emanated from new political, financial and socio-economic trends in Namibia and the global village. Due to their strategic positions as educational leaders-cum-managers, principals were expected to lead and manage schools to overcome the challenges and meet increasing expectations of varied stakeholders. However, many secondary school principals especially those in rural areas could not cope with the changes and challenges. Rural secondary school principals did not have what it takes to manage and lead their schools effectively and efficiently. This study investigated the professional development of Namibian secondary school principles with special focus on rural secondary school principals in the Omusati Region, a region in north central of Namibia.</p>